Back to Commuting

Let me apologize to my 3-7 readers for the recent lapse in material. Early Spring and Late Fall are traditionally my 'down' periods. Weather isn't ideal for either of my preferred outdoor activities and homebrewing is on a holding pattern while our home situation is still up in the air...hence Manarea has gone dormant.

I have still been getting out there though, I have done a few road rides but they were more uneventful type base mile rides without much intrigue so I figured they didn't warrant a post, just a tweet.

BUT! one thing I can do in early Spring is get back on the commuting horse and start biking into work again. I had forgotten how nice it is to get 7 miles in the morning. It's a great way to start the day, gets everything rolling nicely (PUN intended). I was a tad frantic this morning running late trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. It takes me a bit until I get into the autopilot mode packing routine for the commute. Gotta make sure you have underwear and your keys to get into the office, everything else is luxury or just added weight.

It became apparent within about 5 mins that I have somewhat forgotten how to layer properly for real cold weather riding. Some parts were too cold, some too hot. I had it down last year, it will come to me I just have to experiment again a bit. I also forgot how to pack a bag correctly, I very quickly got a hot spot on my back either from my shoes or the tupperware holding my lunch (mmmmm lasagna). The bike was running great though...new Crankbrother Smarty pedals are nice but they have A LOT of float. Might feel nicer if I dial the retention up a bit, but they are only gonna be for commuting and off and on ice riding so whatever. New cassette is nice and smooth and has a nicer gear range than the 'frankensette' I had on there before.

It's good to be back to saving on gas and getting more miles in AND they installed new massaging shower heads in the HUB! SCORE!

Here are the goods from the Garmin:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7963890

I was hoping that when I turned the device off when I got to work that it would commit that ride to history and reset the data tracking so the to and from portions of my commute would be recorded independently. Unfortunately that's not how the Edge 205 works and when you turn it back on it continues from where it left off unless you upload the data off the device apparently. I'll have to look into that more but I'm kinda bummed about that, not a huge deal but it would be nice to have the option. So you'll see the Garmin tracked the whole time I was at work as 'stopped time' so this activity came in over 10 hours total haha. I learn more about this thing every day. Pretty soon I will be a pro.